Joe Biden Raises $21.5 Million During First Months Of 2020 Presidential Campaign
Democratic front-runner Joe Biden raised $21.5 million during the second quarter of the Democratic primary campaign, his campaign announced in an email to supporters on Wednesday.
The Biden campaign received 436,000 donations from 256,000 individuals, who donated an average of $49, the email said. The campaign said 97% of donations were under $200.
The haul falls just short of the $24 million raised by Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, who quickly proved to be a talented fundraiser in the early months of the Democratic primary.
But the former vice president entered the race in late April, a few weeks after the start of the quarter, meaning he had fewer days to raise money than candidates like Buttigieg and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Sanders, who is Biden’s closest competitor in national polls, raised $18 million in the second quarter from nearly 1 million donors. He emphasized in a statement this week that he did so while he held “zero big dollar fundraisers and rejected money from Wall Street executives and the fossil fuel industry.”
The comment was a clear shot at candidates like Biden, who has aggressively leaned on fundraising with wealthy donors early on. It was at a New York fundraiser in June that Biden caused national controversy when he celebrated his past relationships with two well-known segregationists, James O. Eastland and Herman Talmadge.
Biden continues to hold a signifiant lead in the national polls, though it has dropped steadily since mid-May. The fallout from his comments about the segregationists continued through the first Democratic debates in Miami, where Harris confronted Biden about them.
Early polls indicate Biden’s performance at the debates may have hurt his candidacy. Soon afterward, one campaign fundraiser, San Francisco-based lawyer Tom McInerney, decided he would no longer financially support the candidate, according to CNBC.
“I would imagine I’m not alone,” McInerney told CNBC.
Related Coverage
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Pete Buttigieg Says His Campaign Raised Almost $25 Million In 2nd Quarter
Bernie Sanders Raises $18 Million In Second Quarter Of 2019
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
